Ok, so this master plan thingy ... I *think* the Daleks are trying to arrange a fight between Earth and some other race. But that doesn't make sense, since there are at least four differing alien races in this little bad guy war council, not even counting the Daleks. I'm just going to hang out and go along for the ride.
Not really - the Daleks have formed an alliance with the other races, all of whom are planning to attack Earth with the Time Destructor; the core of which was stolen by the Doctor.
With a story like Daleks' Master Plan, I strongly recommend you pause on watching it and either try and get hold of the audio or the reconstruction (or at the very least read the
episode transcripts) - with most of the other stories on Lost in Time there's only one episode representing the entire story, so there's no need to try and understand the storyline.
With DMP, however, you're jumping in at 3 different points in the story, all of which are completely unrelated to each other (disregarding the main players in the story), and trying to understand it out of context is tricky at best
I know what you're saying, and I understand. In this project, I am starting with every episode that has been released. When I get to the end of the dvds, I'll go with videotape first (I have Shada on tape), then possibly the reconstructions.
For Lost in Time, I knew what I was getting into - incomplete fragments, small pieces of larger stories. But it'll be over soon, and I'll be on to War Games, and then the Third Doctor. But for now, here's the next episode.
The Daleks Masterplan, episode 5, from "Lost in Time"
Written by Terry Nation
Directed by Douglas Camfield
Sara Kingdom runs down a hallway with another person. A guard, perhaps? Whatever he is, he's wearing the same kind of uniform she is.
The Doctor and Steven enter an odd room, maybe a lab of some sort. There are laboratory mice (their genes have been spliced) inside. Sara enters the lab and demands they hand something over. Then the tests start and they're all in enormous pain.
They are transported to some far distance unknown (for now) planet.
The Daleks pop in for some tea and scones, then drop off screen.
The mice arrive successfully. No sign of the people.
According to not-Vaughn, the planet is called Mara. Oh, and he is absolutely barking mad.
Ok, the Doctor is fine. He wakes up, followed by Steven. Something invisible is coming towards them, leaving monstrous footprints.
The Daleks pop in on Mara to say "hi there" and have some more tea. But they find the mice and get so scared they pee themselves. So they kill the poor lab mice.
The Doctor knows exactly where they are and what those invisible dudes are. But before he can do anything about it, he and the others are captured by the Daleks.
* * *
Just a guess, but I figure Douglas Adams saw this before writing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It would totally explain the mice thing. And c'mon, Daleks afraid of mice? Really? The whole thing just gave me a case of the giggles.
Sara is kind of an odd character. For some reason that I still don't know, she has split fandom. There are some Who fans who claim she is a companion of the Doctor, despite appearing in only one story. There are some Who fans who claim someone must be in at least two stories to qualify as a Companion (so Adam counts as a companion for Nine, but Astrid Perth wouldn't count for Ten). And then there's someone like me who thinks "Hey, so that's who they're talking about. What's the big deal?" *shrug*
Since this story is more than twice the normal length (12 episodes vs. the usual 4-6 episodes), one could make the argument that is counts as two stories. Me, I just think it's funny and a really stupid thing to nitpick and argue over. And yet, almost half a century after this aired, people are still arguing it. I know, because I've read a few of the arguments just this past weekend.
<-- That look..
